R. Cielo Cruz is a writer, parent, social justice movement leader, and intersectional feminist. They have lived in New Orleans for over 25 years and in that time, worked closely with numerous organizations in the struggle for racial justice, lgbtq liberation and immigrant rights. 

Born in the US to Cuban parents, R Cielo Cruz was raised by a single mother in a multi-racial community in North Miami. Cruz draws deeply from this experience, as well as their close ties to the Caribbean, in their writing. Stories and essays by Cruz have been published in Perigee, Black Warrior Review, Colorlines, hipMama, Bridge the Gulf Project, and the anthology Mamaphonic.

Cruz is a 2017 & 2020 VONA Voices Fellow. In 2018, they founded Racial Justice Reads. They were a Paper Machine artist in residence in October 2022 and produced Paper Portals: A Braided Spellbook. In 2024, Cruz was a part of the Speculative Fiction workshop with Rivers Solomon at the Roots, Wounds, Words Winter Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color. They live in New Orleans and have an MA in Latin American studies.

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Paper Portals: a braided Spellbook

Weaving together words and images, Paper Portals winds through the migration of the artist’s family, the emergence of their political consciousness, and their work in/for beloved community. Part poem, part visual meditation, part fragments of spells, the work reflects the author’s relationship to New Orleans on a personal, historical, and metaphysical level. Paper Portals invites the reader into a stretching exercise, straddling multiple planes and timelines, to explore memories, ruptures, and their messy results.

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